No luxury bunks for FFA, 4-H students at State Fair

Aug. 19, 2011

Written by

Mandalyn Martin of Moulton shows where she carved her name in the porch table of Hillcrest Dorm on the fairgrounds. Name-carving is an FFA ritual during fair time. / Kyle Munson/The Register

More

ADVERTISEMENT

Hotter temps and scattered showers pepper the remainder of the Iowa State Fair forecast, but the first five or so days of the fair felt perfect enough to rate some of the best weather of any of its 162 installments.

For instance: I asked Gary Slater, the State Fair's CEO, why his preliminary gate attendance was running so far ahead of last year - nearly 68,000 more fairgoers by the end of Wednesday.

"Other than weather?" he shot back, his voice rising.

Mother Nature obviously remains the fair's chief ally. Not to mention she's a big factor in the sleep habits of dozens of FFA and 4-H students who bunk in a pair of 70-year-old buildings with buzzing box fans rather than air conditioning.

While islands of opulent RVs and new climate-controlled barns have sprung up around them, the confines of the concrete-gray Youth Inn and lodge-style Hillcrest Dorm have remained essentially unchanged since their 1930s origins.

"This fair really has been tremendous weather-wise," said Jenny Lichty, who serves as co-superintendent for about 100 FFA ushers. She bunks alongside her female students in the Youth Inn and still shudders at the thought of last year's oppressive heat and humidity.

Hillcrest, situated (appropriately enough) just up the hill from the Youth Inn and next door to the Cultural Center, is more secluded behind a clutch of tall pine trees. About 60 FFA guys sleep here, where the porch seems to be the gravitational center of the ushers' social scene.

Thursday morning I was introduced to the staple Hillcrest porch card game, "Egyptian Rat Screw." It's a more aggressive form of Slapjack, explained the five students playing it.

I asked card shark Marissa Donahue, 16, of Coon Rapids-Bayard High School, whether she enjoyed her Youth Inn digs down the hill.

"It's a five-star hotel," she replied with a facetious lilt in her voice.

Then many of the students on the porch began debating whether their squishy 4-inch mattresses dated back to the Korean War or the Cold War. I didn't spend time untangling the 20th-century historical timeline for them.

These FFA students in their signature yellow T-shirts serve as a key support staff on the fairgrounds. They're some of the first faces to greet fairgoers in the morning as they hand out programs at the entry gates. They're also some of the last left standing, about midnight, as they wrap up their duties at the Grandstand or the numerous free stages.

No, they're not allowed to sleep in.

"If we don't get up by 9, we have to clean the bathroom," explained Logan Kelly, 16, of Coon Rapids-Bayard.

Sounds like plenty of incentive to me. So these FFA students, who receive a $90 stipend as well as free room, board and fair admission, spend mornings making new friends on the porch. Another tradition: carving their names and even elaborate landscape scenes into the tabletops. Kelly showed off his intricate rendering of the FFA badge.

See, kids these days aren't always on their cellphones. What could be more old-fashioned than card games and wood carving?

Lichty's co-superintendent, Andy Rowe, is a retired agriculture teacher from Marengo who still farms. He has his own bunk in Hillcrest just like the rest of the guys.

"If you can get (a mattress) that has all the wires and springs, that really helps," he noted dryly.

I stayed in the Youth Inn all of one night more than 20 years ago as a 4-H'er at the State Fair. It aspires to be one of the more "quiet and inconspicuous" spots on the fairgrounds, said superintendent Crystal Storhoff when I made my return visit.

Storhoff actually sleeps in a "private suite" - a former backstage dressing room. Her office is a corner balcony situated stage right that overlooks the main floor commons/auditorium, infrequently used for events during the fair.

I sat next to Storhoff on a worn orange sofa, within view of stacks of DVDs, breakfast cereal boxes and a dorm refrigerator.

Don't look around the Youth Inn for some of the splashiest fair amenities.

"We got new light bulbs yesterday," Storhoff said after some thought.

Hasn't she lobbied for air conditioning or plush carpeting at the Youth Inn and Hillcrest?

"I don't believe I have enough power for that," she said, cracking a smile.

But some of the FFA students will make their presence known this afternoon, Lichty said, by fulfilling another goofy tradition: a roving toga party around the fairgrounds, dressed in their bedsheets.

I didn't ask whether they would be collecting donations for Hillcrest and Youth Inn renovations.

— Kyle Munson can be reached at (515) 284-8124 or kmunson@dmreg.com. Connect with him on Facebook (Kyle Munson's Iowa), Twitter (@KyleMunson) and his blog (DesMoinesRegister.com/KyleMunson).